William W. George is an American businessman and academic. He is a professor of management practice, and a Henry B. Arthur Fellow of Ethics at Harvard Business School.Official website biography
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Charlie Rose biography
He previously served as chairman and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Medtronic.

Early life and education

George graduated with a Bachelor in Industrial and Systems Engineering with high honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1964. At Georgia Tech, George was a member of the Beta Psi chapter of the fraternity

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more t ...

. He received a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

with high distinction from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1966; where he was a Baker Scholar.

Career

He started his career in the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

where he was Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and later as Special Civilian Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. He later served as president of Litton Microwave Cooking Products from 1969-1978 and as Executive Vice President of

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

and also President of Honeywell Europe. In 1989, he joined Medtronic as president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

. He was elected chief executive officer in 1991 and chairman of the board in 1996. He was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the Harvard Business School in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

from 2004 to 2016 and is currently a senior fellow. In 2002–2003 he was a professor at the

International Institute for Management Development International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a private business school in Lausanne, Switzerland specializes in executive education offering open enrollment programs for senior executives, as well as longer-term educational engageme ...

and the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in Switzerland. He also served as executive-in-residence at the

Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate business school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA for Executiv ...

. He served on the boards of directors of

Target Corporation Target Corporation ( doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a com ...

Novartis AG Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loca ...

, Exxon Mobil, Mayo Clinic and Goldman Sachs.

Awards and memberships

In 2014, he was awarded the Bower Award for Business Leadership by the Franklin Institute. He was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

in 2012 for applying engineering principles to manufacturing to advance health care. He sits on the executive committee of the board of YMCA of the North and the Guthrie Theater. He has served as chair of the board of Allina Health System,

Abbott Northwestern Hospital Abbott Northwestern Hospital is a 686-staffed bed teaching and specialty hospital based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a part of the Allina Health network of hospitals and clinics. History Abbott Northwestern Hospital was founded in 1882 as ...

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

of the Greater Twin Cities, and

AdvaMed AdvaMed, or the Advanced Medical Technology Association, is an American medical device trade association, based in Washington, D.C. It is the largest medical device association in the world with U.S. and international members who are medical tec ...

. Previously, he served on the board of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

USA. He has received

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

s from the Mayo Clinic, Georgia Tech, St. Thomas University, Augsburg College, and Bryant University. He has been named one of "Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years" by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

; "Executive of the Year—2001" by the Academy of Management; and "Director of the Year—2001–2002" by the

National Association of Corporate Directors The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is an independent, not-for-profit, section 501(c)(3) founded in 1977 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. NACD's membership includes the entire boards of 1,700+ corporations as well as ...

. In 2018, Bill George received the Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication at the second annua
Arthur W. Page Center Awards
in New York City.

Selected publications

*''Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value'', , 2003. *'' True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership'', , with Peter Sims, 2007. *''True North Groups: A Powerful Path to Personal and Leadership Development'', , with Doug Baker, 2008. *''Finding Your True North: A Personal Guide'', , with Andrew McLean and Nick Craig, 2008. *''7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis'', , 2009. *''Discover Your True North'', , 2015. *''The Discover Your True North Fieldbook: A Personal Guide to Becoming an Authentic Leader'', , with Nick Craig and Scott Snook, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Bill American chief operating officers Businesspeople from Minneapolis Directors of ExxonMobil Directors of Goldman Sachs Georgia Tech alumni Harvard Business School alumni Harvard Business School faculty Living people Mayo Clinic people Medtronic people Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering 1951 births